Karen Jones, Veterinary Nurse, at the Cardiff PDSA PetAid hospital describes a working day.
It's already well into the new year and I'm looking forward to another great year. A new year is always exciting not knowing what will happen - at PDSA you never know what case will walk through the door next!
I arrive at work a bit early today. I've got so much to do as I'm on theatre duty! We've got a lot of operations this morning and a couple that will require a lot of time and concentration. I go straight to the theatre and get everything ready for the vets. I make sure the anaesthetic machines are fully functional and look at the list of operations that we will do today.
Each operation requires a specific set of instruments - it can be what's called a 'basic' kit - that may consist of two pairs of forceps, a pair of surgical scissors, a scalpel handle, four towel clips and a pair of needle holders. We add to that as required - the vet may need some small artery forceps, a different type of scissors, some specialist orthopaedic instruments and so on. An experienced nurse should be able to anticipate what the vet will need for each operation, or at least have items quickly available. All of our surgical instruments are sterilised and stored in special packs that don't let in any germs. They are carefully labelled and stored in their own place in the instrument cupboards.
I'm 'paired' with the vet who is on major surgery today and we start off with an orthopaedic operation that's really going to be challenging. Brandy is a sweet dog that slipped her lead to chase a cat and ended up being hit by a car. Her owner rushed her into the hospital. We immediately treated her for shock, and when she was out of danger, we cleaned her up and saw that fortunately her injuries weren't as bad as they first appeared. However, we knew she had a broken leg just by looking at the angle that she held it. The x-ray showed just how badly it was broken.
